Einar Wigen

Professor - Middle East Studies
Image of Einar Wigen
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Phone +47 22858239
Room 379 PAM
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Visiting address Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 P. A. Munchs hus 0371 Oslo
Postal address Postboks 1010 Blindern 0315 Oslo

Academic Interests

Einar Wigen is professor of Turkish studies with inter-disciplinary research interests ranging from early Turkic state-formation via plague in the Ottoman Empire to contemporary Turkish politics. He currently leads the project EPIDEMICS, and is part of the research project LIFETIMES.

His two monographs are:

The Steppe Tradition in International Relations: Russians, Turks and European State-Building 4000 BCE–2018 CE (with Iver B. Neumann). This book is about the importance of the steppe nomads for polity formation in Eurasia, with particular emphasis on Russia, the Ottoman Empire and Turkey.

State of Translation: Turkey in Interlingual Relations is based on Wigen's doctoral dissertation on the role of concept translation in the transformation of the Ottoman Empire into the Republic of Turkey, as well as in the international relations of these states.

Before taking up his position as associate professor, Wigen was part of the research project Synchronizing the World, where he worked on the translation of genre elements and temporal concepts from European historiography, and their application to Ottoman historiography. More specifically, his part of the project was on how European historians included the Ottoman Empire in the genre of world history, and how Ottoman historians wrote their works by reference to events and temporal regimes that had their key points of reference outside the Ottoman Empire.

Wigen wrote his doctoral dissertation on the translation and use of European concepts for legitimising Ottoman sovereignty to European audiences, and for reorganising social relations within the Ottoman state, as well as between state and subjects in a process that resulted in the emergence of the Turkish Republic. This dissertation sits at the intersection between Ottoman/Turkish studies, International Relations, and conceptual history.

Philology aside, Wigen takes a keen interest in historical sociology of Turkey, the Middle East and Central Asia.

Higher education and employment history

2014 PhD in Turkish studies with the doctoral dissertation Interlingual and International Relations: A History of Conceptual Entanglements between Europe and Turkey, which is a conceptual history (Begriffsgeschichte) of how Ottoman and Turkish political language was synchronised with European language through the introduction of various European political concepts.

2010-2014 Doctoral Fellow at IKOS, part of the inter-disciplinary research project KULTRANS

2010 Research Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

2009 Student Fellow, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI)

2008 Summer student/research assistant, Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (FFI)

2009 MPhil Political Science, University of Oslo

2005 MA Peace and Conflict Studies, European University Center for Peace Studies (EPU), Austria

2007 Bachelor competency in Turkish language.

Various stays at Bosporus University in Istanbul, the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul (SRII), and the Harvard-Koç Intensive Ottoman and Turkish Summer School in Cunda, Turkey.

Cooperation

Previous collaborations include the project Civility, Virtue and Emotions in Europe and Asia, which ran 2011-2014, and culminated in the book Civilizing Emotions: Concepts in Nineteenth Century Asia and Europe.

Tags: Turkish, Turkey, Central Asia, Political Islam, Middle East, CIMS

Publications

(2018) ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou? Kinship in Turkish Region-building,’ in Kristin Haugevik and Iver B. Neumann (eds.) Kinship in International Relations. New Studies in International Relations Series. London: Routledge.

(2018) Helge Jordheim and Einar Wigen. ‘Conceptual Synchronisation. From Progressto Crisis,’ Millennium. Journal of International Studies. 47(1).

(2015). 'The Education of Ottoman Man and the Practice of Orderliness', In Civilizing Emotions. Concepts in Nineteenth-Century Asia and Europe.  Oxford University Press. s 107 - 125.

(2015) ‘Two-Level Language Games: International Relations as Inter-lingual Relations’, European Journal of International Relations.

(2015) (med Iver B. Neumann) ‘Remnants of the Mongol Imperial Tradition’ in Sandra Halperin & Ronen Palan (eds.) Remnants of Empire. Cambridge & New York, NY: Cambridge University Press

(2013) “Ottoman Concepts of Empire” Contributions to the History of Concepts. Summer 2013, 8(1): 44-66.

  • Wigen, Einar (2023). A Pandemic, a Curfew, and a Resignation: The Politics of COVID-19 in Turkey. In Yenen, Alp & Zürcher, Erik-Jan (Ed.), A Hundred Years of Republican Turkey A History in a Hundred Fragments. Leiden University Press (LUP). ISSN 9789087284107.
  • Wigen, Einar & Neumann, Iver Brynild (2023). Where Did the Mongol Empire Go? The Presences of a Eurasian Steppe-Nomadic Past. In Schlichte, Klaus & Stetter, Stephan (Ed.), The Historicity of International Politics: Imperialism and the Presence of the Past . Cambridge University Press. ISSN 978-1-009-19905-6. p. 123–137.
  • Topal, Alp Eren & Wigen, Einar (2022). Diagnosing the State: Medical Metaphors in Ottoman Political Writing. Die Welt des Islams: International Journal for the Study of Modern Islam. ISSN 0043-2539. 62(3-4), p. 299–324. doi: 10.1163/15700607-62030002. Full text in Research Archive
  • Azak, Nalan & Wigen, Einar (2022). “Whatever They Say I Do the Opposite”: Vaccine Resistance in Turkey During the Covid-19 Pandemic. Medical Anthropology. ISSN 0145-9740. 41(8), p. 778–793. doi: 10.1080/01459740.2022.2142578. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wigen, Einar (2022). The Multiple Temporalities of Epidemic Endings. Centaurus. Journal of the European Society for the History of Science. ISSN 0008-8994. 64(1), p. 273–286. doi: 10.1484/J.CNT.5.129943. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wigen, Einar; Azak, Nalan; Eskild, Ingrid; Jordheim, Helge; Lie, Anne Helene Kveim & Yerlioglu, Akif Ercihan [Show all 7 contributors for this article] (2022). Temporal technologies of epidemics. Medical Humanities. ISSN 1468-215X. 48(4). doi: 10.1136/medhum-2021-012253.
  • Issa, Rana & Wigen, Einar (2020). Levantine chronotopes: prisms for entangled histories. Contemporary Levant. ISSN 2058-1831. 5(1), p. 1–12. doi: 10.1080/20581831.2019.1710666.
  • Neumann, Iver & Wigen, Einar (2020). Response to reviewers: The Steppe tradition in international relations. Cambridge Review of International Affairs. ISSN 0955-7571. 33(6), p. 957–961. doi: 10.1080/09557571.2020.1838823. Full text in Research Archive
  • Topal, Alp Eren & Wigen, Einar (2019). Ottoman conceptual history: Challenges and prospects. Contributions to the History of Concepts. ISSN 1807-9326. 14(1), p. 93–114. doi: 10.3167/choc.2019.140105. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wigen, Einar (2019). O Brother, where art thou? Kinship in Turkish region-building. In Haugevik, Kristin M. & Neumann, Iver (Ed.), Kinship in International Relations. Routledge. ISSN 978-1-138-58055-8. p. 121–137. doi: 10.4324/9780429507267-7. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wigen, Einar (2018). Post-Ottoman studies. An area studies that never was, Building Bridges to Turkish: Essays in Honour of Bernt Brendemoen. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISSN 978-3-447-11123-2. p. 313–326. doi: 10.2307/j.ctvh4zh3p.26.
  • Jordheim, Helge & Wigen, Einar (2018). Conceptual Synchronisation: From Progress to Crisis. Millennium: Journal of International Studies. ISSN 0305-8298. 46(3), p. 421–439. doi: 10.1177/0305829818774781.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). The Education of Ottoman Man and the Practice of Orderliness. In Jordheim, Helge & Pernau, Margrit (Ed.), Civilizing Emotions. Concepts in Nineteenth-Century Asia and Europe. Oxford University Press. ISSN 978-0-19-874553-2. p. 107–125. doi: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198745532.003.0006.

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  • Csato, Eva A.; Parslow, Joakim; Wigen, Einar & Türker, Emel (2018). Building Bridges to Turkish: Essays in Honour of Bernt Brendemoen. Harrassowitz Verlag. ISBN 978-3-447-11123-2. 340 p.
  • Wigen, Einar (2018). State of Translation: Turkey in Interlingual Relations. University of Michigan Press. ISBN 978-0-472-13094-8. 304 p.
  • Neumann, Iver & Wigen, Einar (2018). The Steppe Tradition in International Relations: Russians, Turks and European State-Building 4000 bce–2018 ce. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-108-42079-2. 318 p.

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  • Neumann, Iver Brynild & Wigen, Einar (2023). Kronikk: Tyrkia har latt muligheten til å fremstå som europeisk og demokratisk gå fra seg. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Caraccioli, Mauro J.; Wigen, Einar; Lopez, Julia Costa; Cheney, Amanda & Subotic, Jelena (2021). Forum: Interlingual relations: Approaches, conflicts, and lessons in the translation of global politics. International Studies Review. ISSN 1521-9488. 23(3), p. 1015–1045. doi: 10.1093/isr/viaa019. Full text in Research Archive
  • Wigen, Einar (2020). Krisepolitikk og epidemier i Midtøsten. Babylon - Nordisk tidsskrift for Midtøstenstudier. ISSN 1503-5727. doi: 10.5617.
  • Jordheim, Helge; Wigen, Einar & Lie, Anne Kveim (2020). Epidemiens tidsorden. Klassekampen. ISSN 0805-3839.
  • Jordheim, Helge; Wigen, Einar; Lie, Anne Kveim & Ljungberg, Erik (2020). Epidemic Times. Somatosphere: Science, Medicine and Anthropology.
  • Neumann, Iver & Wigen, Einar (2018). https://morgenbladet.no/ideer/2018/11/steppenes-politikk-hjelper-dagens-sterke-ledere. [Internet]. Morgenbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2018). Taking Part in The Hegemonic Language Games of International Society .
  • Wigen, Einar (2018). The Temporalities of Orientalism.
  • Wigen, Einar (2017). Empire is What Middlemen Make of It. A Post-Ottoman Sub-System of States.
  • Wigen, Einar (2017). Hierarchy is What Middlemen Make of It. A Post-Ottoman Sub-System of States .
  • Wigen, Einar (2017). Turkey under Erdogan - a weaker state? (discussant).
  • Wigen, Einar (2017). State Legitimation in Turkey.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Forskersamtale om Tyrkia under Erdoğan.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Hjemreiser: Forfattersamtale med Stian Bromark.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Tyrkisk historie: En introduksjon.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Key Concepts of Ottoman History.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Tyrkia - vår allierte venn. [Radio]. På krigsstien – en podkast fra Forsvarets høgskole.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). The Importance of Translation in the Global Study of IR.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Introduction. What is Politics? Exploring the history of a concept across the Euro-Islamic world. .
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Reading Clocks Allaturka by Avner Wishnitzer. New Perspectives on Turkey. ISSN 0896-6346. 54.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Tyrkia bruker flyktningene i politisk spill. [Newspaper]. Ukeavisen Ledelse.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Legger lokk på terroren. [Newspaper]. Klassekampen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Mener IS forsøker å destabilisere Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. Dagbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Her har terroristene slått til mot turister. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Dødelig bombe rystet Istanbuls gamleby. [Newspaper]. NTB; Dagen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). - Kan være et angrep mot tyrkiske myndigheter. [Business/trade/industry journal]. Forskning.no.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Minst ti drept i eksplosjon i Istanbul. [Newspaper]. Hamar Arbeiderblad.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Regjeringskilder: Ni tyskere drept i Istanbul. [Newspaper]. Dagsavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Nordmenn såret i eksplosjonen i Istanbul. [Newspaper]. Adresseavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Forsker: Tyrkerne føler seg glemt i møte med terror. [Newspaper]. NTB tekst; ABC nyheter; Adresseavisen; Harstad Tidende.
  • Wigen, Einar (2016). Forsker: - Visumfrihet kan gi tyrkisk migrasjon til EU. [Newspaper]. NTB tekst; Forskning.no; Klassekampen; Adresseavisen; etc.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkisk økonomi kan tape 9 milliarder dollar etter nedskytingen av russisk fly. [Internet]. MSN.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Kan tape 9 mrd. dollar etter nedskyting av russisk fly. [Internet]. E24.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Ekspert: Tror Russland vil straffe Tyrkia med gasskutt. [Internet]. VG Nett.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Russland: IS-olje på vei til Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. VG Pluss.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). EU-kommisjonen mener at Tyrkia beveger seg i feil retning. [Radio]. NRK Nyhetsmorgen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Får ikke endret grunnloven. [Newspaper]. Klassekampen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkiske sikkerhetspolitiske utfordringer.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkiske sikkerhetspolitiske utfordringer.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkiske sikkerhetspolitiske utfordringer.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). ”Oss eller kaos”: Tyrkias tofrontskrig svekker kampen mot IS. ProPatria. Militærfaglig tidsskrift.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Spenningen øker i Tyrkia. [Radio]. NRK Alltid Nyheter - Nyhetslunch.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Spenningen øker i Tyrkia. [Radio]. NRK Alltid Nyheter - Nyhetsettermiddag.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Valg i Tyrkia. [Radio]. NRK Alltid Nyheter - Nyhetsmorgen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Valg i Tyrkia. [Radio]. NRK Alltid Nyheter - Nyhetsettermiddag.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Valg i Tyrkia. [Radio]. NRK Alltid Nyheter - Nyhetslunch.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkia-forsker: - Påvirker ikke tyrkisk politikk. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - Folk mener Tyrkia går i feil retning. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Spiller på religion og nasjonalisme. [Newspaper]. Vårt Land.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Kurdere kan velte flertall. [Newspaper]. Vårt Land.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Jøder rømmer fra Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. Vårt Land.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). "Den store mester" vil bli allmektig. [Newspaper]. Vårt Land.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - Mitt gamle kontor var fullt av kakerlakker. [Internet]. NRK.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Dette kan bli resultatet av det tyrkiske valget. [Newspaper]. Dagbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - Kurderne lærte oss hvordan man gjør opprør. [Newspaper]. Dagbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Frykter omfattende valgfusk i Tyrkia. [Internet]. NTB Tekst; MSN; NRK; Bergens Tidende.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Opptellingen i gang i Tyrkia. [Internet]. NTB; ABC Nyheter.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkias president mangler flertall - kurdisk feiring. [Newspaper]. Dagbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkias president ligger an til å miste flertall. [Newspaper]. Adresseavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Valget i Tyrkia: - Stort nederlag for president Erdogan. [Internet]. Nettavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Ekspert: - Stort nederlag for Erdogan. [Internet]. NTB tekst; MSN; Avisa Nordland; Avisen Agder.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkia-ekspert: - Lover godt for demokratiet. [Internet]. VG Nett.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkias president Erdogan gikk på valgsmell. [Internet]. VG Pluss.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Statsminister: - AKP vant valget. Ekspertene: - Nederlag for AKP. [Newspaper]. Dagbladet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). "Det lover godt for demokratiet Tyrkias president Erdogan gikk på valgsmell. [Newspaper]. VG.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Drømmen knust Valg i Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. Dagbadet.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Nederlag for Erdogan - Tyrkia Valg. [Newspaper]. Stavanger Aftenblad.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Velgerne stanset grunnlovsendring. [Newspaper]. Bergens Tidende.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Ekspert: - Stort nederlag for Erdogan. [Newspaper]. Bergens Tidende.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Velgerne stanset Erdogans grunnlovsendring. [Newspaper]. NTB, Dagsavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkia-ekspert: - Vi skal ikke avskrive ringreven Erdogan. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Gjennombrudd for kurderne. [Newspaper]. Dagen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Spår nyvalg i Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. Vårt Land.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - Vi skal ikke avskrive ringreven Erdogan. [Newspaper]. Aftenposten.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Her kan en ny stat oppstå. [Internet]. MSN.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Terrorbombe skaper frykt i Tyrkia. [Internet]. NRK.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Ekspert: - Kan bli spent i Tyrkia. [Newspaper]. Adresseavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - IS stod bak selvmordsangrep. [Newspaper]. Dagsavisen, Rogaland Avis.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - IS stod bak selvmordsangrep. [Internet]. NTB, Nettavisen, ABC Nyheter, Adresseavisen.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). - Kan bli spent. [Newspaper]. Ekstra.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Ekspert om Tyrkia-eksplosjon: Ikke overraskende at konflikten utvides. [Newspaper]. VG.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Tyrkia-terror skaper økt spenning og demonstrasjoner. [Internet]. MSN.
  • Wigen, Einar (2015). Sinne og sorg etter bombe. [Newspaper]. Klassekampen.

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Published Sep. 1, 2010 9:18 AM - Last modified May 5, 2023 10:09 AM

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